How to Restore Google Contacts

Restore Google Contacts

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Go to Google Contacts and sign in with your Google Account. Enter your email address and password and click 'Sign in'. You will be taken to your account's contacts profile.

You can also access this page by logging into Gmail and selecting 'Contacts' from within the 'Gmail' menu in the upper left corner.

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Click "Restore Contacts". This option is listed in the left sidebar, a window will pop up for you to choose the recovery time.

If this option does not appear, click 'More' in the left sidebar to expand the menu. This menu is expanded by default.

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Select the recovery time from the list. You need to select the time before the contacts were changed (for example, if the contacts were changed yesterday, you need to choose a restore time of at least 2 days ago).

You can restore from a custom time if you don't want to use the default options, but the maximum limit is 30 days or earlier.

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Click "Restore". This button is at the bottom of the recovery time window and will return the contacts to the state at the recovery stage you selected.

Publish backup

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Go to Google Contacts and sign in with your Google Account. Enter your email address and password and then click 'Sign in'. You will be taken to your account's contacts profile.

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Click 'Export'. This button is listed in the left sidebar.

The export usually doesn't support the Google Contacts preview (enabled by default), you will automatically be redirected to the old version of Google Contacts.

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Open the 'More' menu and select 'Export'. This menu is located just below the search bar. The export window will pop up.

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Select export settings. By default, the 'Export All' option is selected. You can also choose to export only certain groups or contacts.

To export only specific contacts, you need to check the checkboxes next to the names of each contact you want to export before selecting the 'Export' option from the menu.

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Select the format you want for the contacts file. Google CSV is a file format for importing into other Google accounts (this is the best choice for Google account backups). You can also choose Outlook CSV or vCard if you regularly use Microsoft or Apple products.

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Click 'Export'. The save dialog box will appear.

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Choose where to save and then click 'Save'. The backup file along with your Google contacts will be saved to the location you choose.

Import backup

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Go to Google Contacts and sign in with your Google Account. Enter your email address and password and then click 'Sign in'. You will be taken to your account's contacts profile.

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Click 'Import…'. This button is in the left sidebar and opens the input source selection window.

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Click 'Choose File'. A new window will open for you to browse for the contacts file you created when exporting the data previously.

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Select the contact file and then click 'Open'. The file will appear in the import window.

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Click 'Import'. The contacts from the file will be imported into the Google contact list.

Lesley Montoya

Update 25 February 2022